NARUSAWA, Japan: From his hut on the edge of Japan's "Suicide Forest", Kyochi Watanabe blasts John Lennon's "Imagine" into the night -- hoping that music can lift people from their despair before it's too late. Japan's 'Suicide Forest' made global headlines last year when YouTube star Logan Paul filmed an episode of his online series there showing the body of someone who had taken their own life. Japan has the highest suicide rate of any Group of Seven industrialised nation, with more than 20,000 people taking their own lives annually. And the suicide rate in Yamanashi prefecture, where the forest is located, was the worst in Japan for eight years until 2014. But that hope was shattered when Paul uploaded his controversial film showing the body of a man who had committed suicide.

Source: Bangkok Post December 21, 2018 04:41 UTC